Charming and brutal

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

First off, I really liked the show. I liked it enough that I bought the whole season on iTunes after watching the free first episode. It was a little bit like "Homeland" (early on) but set in a cutting edge medical facility instead of a world full of spies and terrorists. However, in the last few episodes, there was a story arc underway that was never finished. The main character, after seeming to be on a solid track to recovering from her public meltdown, is hit with two surprises..... one of them at the very end of the show.The first surprise hits at about the 1/3 mark of the episode and it is left with one of those "this will get better in time" sort of vibes. The last one, the writers set you up for, lulling you into a sense that this problem has been completely resolved and that her career will withstand this, only to drop a bomb on you with the closing sentence of dialogue.Why is this frustrating? Well, because it was a damn good show. Great acting all around (an interesting observation; although set & filmed in NYC, almost none of the stars were from the US). The main characters were well-developed and almost all of them had a fairly deep backstory. The show tackled an issue which is not studied in-depth on most shows (mental illness). All the main characters were capable of great & magnificent things (in their own way) yet every single one also had feet of clay. While some of the story lines were a bit of a stretch, they were more plausible than most episodes of "House" and the similar cases were presented more accurately and the solutions were more medically sound.Well, if you don't mind being left hanging in the end and you are not bothered by a dark look into mental health issues, I highly recommend this show. It just is really frustrating when a show is canceled because of rating but it has been scheduled at an unusual time of year (the pilot ran in late April) and has been under-advertised. It almost makes you wonder why the network even bothered airing the program at all.... just let the production company shop it to another network like FX, TNT, etc.

Dr. Catherine Black (Kelly Reilly) is the top neuroscientist working at the Center for Neurological Research and Treatment. She has bipolar disorder with sexually aggressive manic episodes. Her therapist Dr. Hartramph (Vanessa Redgrave) battles to keep her on her meds. Her chef boyfriend Will Van Renseller (David Ajala) doesn't know at first. Her brother Joshua Black (David Chisum) and wife Reagan (Laura Fraser) are hiding the fact that she's actually the mother to their daughter Esme (Siobhan Williams). At work, she has a complicated attraction to her destructive co-worker Dr. Ian Bickman (Ditch Davey).This is a crazy series about mentally ill character. It's fascinating to see some people praise it for its accuracy while others deride it as fantasy. I have no personal experience with mental illness. Some of the show is obviously overstated but I found most of the weekly procedural interesting. The personal melodrama is also very interesting especially the part with her daughter. The jazz music and her manic dancing is a bit distracting and not my taste. This is generally a well made show about a character that is slightly different from the usual fare. It had few viewers and canceled after one summer season.

I loved this series and the characters. I have no idea whether any of the diagnoses that the patients presented with or solutions for treatment were accurate but I guarantee that it was interesting and entertaining. I even thought some of the villainous characters were great and justified in doing the back stabbing things they did. Dr. Black was wonderful although I think a lot was probably left out about bipolar disorder and how disruptive it can be to a persons life and the lives of those closest to them. For me this show was pure entertainment. This was a dramatic series that takes you on a roller-coaster ride where you are never quite sure where you are going or if you will even get there. It ran the gamut of emotions. I usually enjoy sci-fi fantasy and mysteries but I definitely got hooked on this . I hope there will be a second season of this program perhaps at a later time.

Finally a true betrayal of mental illness this is a great show it portrays how mental illness affects so many people. I appreciate their portrayal of the Dr having this illness a highly educated person instead of just the stereo types of mental illness. Love the actress's portrayal of bi polar and mania very realistic. Great story line and how it affects not only the patient, but also the family and loved ones, hopefully this show is helping the general public's awareness of how this illness can affect people. I believe the actors are doing a great job similar to House but much betterPlease don't cancel the show it is good!